Joy FM ordered to produce tape of Rawlings interview

Mr Justice Kwame Afreh, presiding over the Fast Track Court, on Tuesday, ordered "Joy FM" station to produce on Wednesday at 1100 hours, a tape-recording of an interview granted to Ex-President Jerry John Rawlings during which he allegedly made some remarks on the Quality Grain trial.

The order followed an objection raised by the Deputy Attorney - General and Minister of Justice, Ms Gloria Akuffo that the alleged statement could be prejudicial to the trial. Ms Akuffo said initially, she felt reluctant to comment on the interview but she realised that the remarks were not in the good interest of criminal jurisprudence.

Mr Rawlings on Friday, January 18, for the first time went to the court to listen to proceedings of the trial of two former Ministers and three former senior public officials in his administration.

The court again ordered the Editor of the "Daily Guide" to appear before the court the same day and same time to explain a publication on the trial in the Tuesday's edition of the paper.

Mr Kwaku Baah, Senior Counsel for the third accused person, Richard Kwame Peprah and former Minister of Finance, had earlier complained of the publication because it did not reflect the true proceedings of the trial and could be prejudicial.

Mr Justice Afreh told the prosecution and the defence that he would never be swayed by such reportage in deciding on the matter.

Ex-President Lands Joy FM, Peace FM in Court

Ghanaian Chronicle (Accra) -- THE sensational visit by former President Jerry John Rawlings to the Fast Tack Court last Friday has brought in its wake court orders summoning various media houses to appear before it today.

Justice Kwame Afreh, the trial judge in the ongoing Quality Grain trial, yesterday after hearing the Deputy Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Ms. Gloria Akufo, ordered the Editor of the Daily Guide to appear before the court today.

The court further made an order summoning JOY FM to bring the transcript and the recorded tape of an interview the station had with Rawlings to court.

Meanwhile, at the time of going to press, Peace FM had also been ordered by the court to produce the transcript and the tape recording of an interview the station had with ex-President in court.

Chronicle intelligence gathered that ex-President Rawlings last week sent emissaries to Peace FM and Radio Gold demanding that reporters be brought to his house for an exclusive interview.

Chronicle also learnt that Rawlings left specific messages for the two FM stations to keep their invitation close to their chest to prevent other media houses from being part of the team.

Ms. Gloria Akufo drew the attention of the court to the comments on the FM stations which she thought were prejudicial to the proceedings in court.

The former President in an interview allegedly made some prejudicial comments on the case. Responding to Ms.Akufo's submissions, Mr. Kwaku Baah, Senior Counsel in the defence team, said that the former President, who is not a lawyer, did not know the legal implications of the comments he was making.

He said that it was the media who invited him to make those comments. In another development, the court also ordered the Editor of the Daily Guide to appear before it to explain an article in the paper titled "He Is At It Again."

In the article, the writer stated that "Mrs. Juliet Cotton, alias Rene Woodard, managed to wriggle her buttocks to get Rawlings and his Ministers to sign $20 million of our scarce dollars to the US, a rich country that rather has signed that money for use in the rice project."

JOY FM in its news bulletin last Friday on the visit of the former President to the court quoted Mr. Victor Smith, an aide of the former President as stating that Rawlings did not understand why he as the sitting head of state who initiated the Quality Grain project at Aveyime has not been joined as an accused in the case.

Mr. Smith was also quoted as saying that Rawlings believes the accused persons were being tried in the courts in accordance with the NPP's brand of due process of law.